Concurrent absence limit: how many people can be off at once

Quick answer

#What it's good for

• A cleaning crew, a kitchen or a production line keeps enough people: if four of six want the same week, the app stops the fourth request.
• Employees find out at once that the dates are taken and pick others, instead of waiting for a “no”.
• Approvers see the warning, the day it happens and the names involved before they click Approve.

#Who it's for

#How the count works

• The cap belongs to a leave allowance (for example Annual leave) and covers every absence type assigned to it.
• For each day of a new request, FreshQR counts the other employees who already have an approved absence in that allowance. Requests with status Entered don’t count.
• The request itself adds one person. With a cap of 2 and two colleagues already off, a third request is over the limit.
• The limit is company-wide. There is no separate value per branch, project or team.

#Step by step

1. Set Max Concurrent Employees on the allowance.

   Go to Absences › Absence types and click the pencil on the header of the allowance, for example Annual leave. In Max Concurrent Employees enter the number of people who may be off at the same time – say 2 – and save. Leave it empty for no cap. Only the Owner and Administrators can change it.

   Make sure every type that should count is assigned to the allowance – see Leave allowance and absence pools.

   

2. Know what the employee sees.

   When an employee taps Finish on a request that would go over the cap, the app shows a message like Sorry, too many colleagues (2) are already off from "Annual leave" on 2026-11-17. Please choose a different date. The number in brackets is your cap, the name is the allowance and the date is the first day that is full, written year-month-day. Nothing is saved; the employee picks other dates. Their side is described in Requesting leave and other absences.

   

3. Spot over-limit requests in the Absences list.

   In the Absences list, requests and approved absences of a capped allowance get an icon in the Type column: a yellow people icon while the day is within the cap, a red exclamation mark when it is over. Hover over the icon to see the busiest day, the count and the names.

   You see these mainly for absences you entered yourself, requests sent before you set the cap, or ones approved anyway.

   

4. Read the warning on the request.

   Open the request. Above the buttons, a red box says Approval will exceed the concurrent limit! (or Concurrent limit exceeded! for an absence that is already approved), followed by a line such as “2 other employees have approved absences on 17/11/2026 (limit: 2)” and the names. Colleagues outside your team are counted but not named.

   Under Who else is out, an extra row – for example Annual leave · cap 2 – shows the count per day and marks the days over the cap in red. If the request starts in a quiet week, click Next week to reach the full day.

   

5. Decide.

   The web app only warns. You can still click Approve – for example when someone else has agreed to cover – or Decline and ask the employee for other dates. The steps are in Approving leave requests.

#Other ways to avoid leave clashes

• Let employees see each other’s leaveTurn on the team absence calendar in the app, so people check who is off before they ask.
• Look at the monthThe Event Calendar shows everyone’s approved and requested leave for the month in one view.

#Special cases and tips

Existing absences over the new cap

Setting the cap doesn’t change anything already approved. Those absences stay, and you see the red warning on them.

Other absence types

Only types assigned to the same allowance count. A doctor visit in the doctor-visit allowance doesn’t count towards the cap on annual leave.

Entering leave yourself

+ Create doesn’t check the cap, so you can always enter an absence. The warning icon then shows in the list.

Valid values

Any whole number from 1 to 1000. Empty or 0 means no cap.

#Related

Web app (administrator)Mobile app (employee)